


umbra - AVENGERS [HIATUS]

by quietdreams



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Because of Reasons, Infinity War Isn't Happening., Other Additional Tags to Be Added, avenger!loki, basically everyone - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-18
Updated: 2018-08-05
Packaged: 2019-06-12 11:59:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 4,701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15339405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quietdreams/pseuds/quietdreams
Summary: um·bra/ˈəmbrə/noun- the fully shaded inner region of a shadow cast by an opaque object, especially the area on the earth or moon experiencing the total phase of an eclipse.





	1. disclaimer

 

 

_I do **not**  own The Avengers,  **Marvel** ,or  **any** of the characters and anything storyline-wise that you recognize._

_I **only**  own Willow Finley Harper and  **anyone** and anything else you  **do not recognize**._


	2. cast

_Amanda Seyfried_ as  **Willow Finley Harper**

_Ana de Armas_ as  **P.R.I.S.M.**

_Robert Downey Jr_  as  **Tony Stark**

_Chris Evans_  as  **Steve Rogers**

_Scarlett Johansson_  as  **Natasha Romanoff**

_Jeremy Renner_  as  **Clint Barton**

_Mark Ruffalo_  as  **Doctor Bruce Banner**

_Chris Hemsworth_ as  **Thor Odinson**

_Tom Hiddleston_  as  **Loki Laufeyson**

_Sebastian Stan_  as  **James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes**

_Elizabeth Olsen_  as  **Wanda Maximoff**

_Paul Bettany_  as  **Vision**

_Tom Holland_ as  **Peter Parker**

 

_All characters are played by the same actors as in the movies._


	3. initializing

_**P.R.I.S.M.** _

_Initializing your Personal Real-time Intelligent Safety Management._

_**P**_ _ERSONAL_ _**R**_ _EAL-TIME_ _**I**_ _NTELLIGENT_ _**S**_ _AFETY_ _**M**_ _ANAGEMENT_


	4. 00

 

❝ _ **welcome to my dark side**_  ❞

_The darkness of the shadows laid over her skin with the practiced ease of an old lover._


	5. 01

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you are curious, I am also writing this on Wattpad, where you can interact with me more-so than on here, although I will respond to any comments left here!  
> On Wattpad, however, I feel as though this story is more aesthetically pleasing, simply because I do plan on adding a lot of gifs and/or images that may pertain to content of the chapters.  
> I will try my best to do the same here as well, hopefully it isn't too annoying or distracting or anything, as I haven't really seen any authors add images or gifs to their stories on AO3, but then maybe that's just the stories I'm reading, I don't know.
> 
> And so the story begins.

__

 

 

 

_When I was a young girl, I lived in a nice house, built for a family. It was an empty house, and there was never anyone inside it except for myself and those I called my **friends**. Being alone at such a young age seemed normal for the most part. The memories I do have of living with people before are fuzzy, but I do recall sitting in a corner, alone then too._

_Now, I'm sure there are plenty of questions as to how I received normal things, such as food and water. The answer to such a question is simple; My **Friends**. They would enter the house and bring with them all kinds of food. Most of the time it was simple things they had found, perhaps even  **caught**. Things such as rabbits hopping through the neighborhood, or perhaps a more relatively normal meal of thrown out leftovers. It sounds worse than it was, although in the beginning it was awful._

_On to my **friends**. They protected me, taught me, sought me out to keep me safe. They gave me  **comfort** and  **warmth** ,  **experience** and  **training** , everything they thought I would need as a young girl. There was never a day where I was alone, or bored, and rarely was I ever  **scared**._

_It was only when the front door of our house was broken down, and people holding guns and flashlights rushed inside and found me that I felt panic. For the first time, I was afraid. 'What if my **friends**  can't protect me?' 'What if everything my  **friends**  have taught me isn't enough?' My mind was racing, and my body froze, sitting at the bottom of the staircase. I was like a deer caught in headlights. But I was saved. My  **friends**  saved my life, as shots that I now know were tranquilizer rounds were fired at me, my  **friends**  took me upstairs, they took me to safety, told me to hide like they had taught me, and to follow them. It was finally time for us to leave that house._

_After leaving that house, it seemed as though everything became much more serious. There were still times when we played around, after all, we were all **friends**. Whenever things became too much, whether it was too much training, too much hiding, too much running, whatever it was, they would find somewhere safe for us to stop and rest or just have some fun._

_As I grew up, I began figuring things out myself. My **friends**  were more like my  **slaves** , and while they still led me and taught me, I discovered that they were at my will. I could make them be or do anything that I wanted, within reason of our connection. By the age of 15, after years of near-constant training, I had finally gained control of what this  **connection** , or ability really is._

_Of course, it should be said what my **friends**  and  **ability**  are._

_You see, my friends were **creatures of darkness**.  **Masses of shadows**  with hollow eyes._

_My ability is layered **within** the shadows. I am able to  **hide** myself within them,  **travel** throughout the darkness,  **shape it to my will** , give purpose to the dark things that hide in the night._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is probably the first story I've ever written where I don't really have a layout or an idea as to how everything is going to play out, simply because I'm not following the movies!
> 
> Also, please let me know if you are enjoying this story, or if you have any ideas for things that I could add later on!
> 
> I hope you have a nice day/night.<3


	6. 02

 

Laying on the ground, bruised and bleeding, Willow Harper took a ragged breath and opened her eyes. It was a brightly lit room, and there was nothing but inside it. Of course, there didn't need to be anything else when she was hardly ever conscious after being thrown inside of it.

Exhaling shakily, Willow glanced around for any signs of guards, or anything else for that matter, and when she found nothing, she slowly pushed herself up into a sitting position, gritting her teeth as her muscles twitched and her arms shook, threatening to give out altogether. Once she had managed to sit up, Willow pushed herself up against a wall, using the solid surface as a means to leverage herself to stand.

Looking at the door to her left, she made her way over to it, wiping her bloodied mouth with the back of her hand before reaching out and grabbing onto the door.

"Get me out of here." She commanded quietly, glaring down at the small slot at ground-level that she assumed was used for pushing trays of whatever they called food through. As she stared at the slot, a darkness began creeping in from underneath the door, making a small smirk form on her face.

Soon enough, all four walls of the small room were covered in a pitch black dark which quickly crept along the ceiling, blocking out the lights shining from above, casting the entire room into darkness. Whispers that would be classified by anyone else as eery quickly surrounded Willow, and she immediately felt the connection solidify, news about what exactly was happening around the base she was trapped in entered her mind and she stayed standing in front of the door as news of a small group of soldiers coming to gather her made its way to her.

"Good. It looks like it's time for me to leave."

" _Young one, you're bruised and bleeding. It_ _ **will**_ _be difficult to escape_." A quiet, raspy voice remarked.

"I'm aware, but this is what you raised me to do;  _escape_." Willow replied softly, her breath hitching as the sound of the door being unlocked echoed throughout the empty room.

Once the door was pushed open, the sound of confusion the soldiers gave at the sight of the pitch black room gave the woman all she needed to make the first move. Baring her teeth, suddenly the pitch black room was filled with hollow white eyes, all staring back at the soldiers in the doorway, who tensed and took steps back, speaking hurriedly in a language Willow couldn't understand. It didn't matter what they were saying, however, as she forced her aching body forward and began trading blows with the soldiers.

Of course, it wasn't long before the three soldiers overpowered the battered young woman, one on either side of her, each holding her tightly by the elbow as the third stood in front of her, his nose bleeding. Spitting in his face, she could feel her face and muscles aching and swelling more from this fight, but as the man in front of her wrapped one hand tensely around her neck, the other pulling out a syringe of some liquid, her fight or flight instincts kicked into overdrive.

Uncaring of any of the consequences that she would have to face for pushing her body so hard, Willow's subconscious activated her abilities. In the span of three seconds, the hallway was first engulfed in darkness, followed by loud, echoing, gravelly laughter seemingly coming from all directions. Next was the sensation of melting, felt by both Willow and the soldiers holding her, as she seemed to slip right through their fingers and disappear.

When it was once again lit in the hallway, the soldiers looked around, only to see that the woman had somehow disappeared. Quickly, they turned on the alarms, alerting everyone in the base that there was someone missing. Red lights and alarms immediately began blaring all across the base.

Opening her eyes, Willow looked around, momentarily hoping she was finally safe until the alarms and lights began. Realizing she was still in the base, just in a different section, she began running. The only thing allowing her to carry on for this long was the adrenaline coursing through her system rapidly as her heartbeat rose once again.

Bursting through a multitude of doorways, the woman came to an abrupt stop when she saw a group of soldiers running towards her, shouting as soon as they saw her. Turning back around, she realized that they must have needed her alive if they weren't going to shoot her, and began running back in the direction she had come from, deciding to test her luck in trying some of the doors she had seen in the long hallways.

It didn't seem to take too much time before several groups of soldiers were locating her, and it seemed that at every other turn she was coming face to face with more soldiers. Panicking, she began trying every door she ran by, almost all of which were either locked, or led to rooms with no other exit. Finally, after what certainly felt like both hours and only seconds of running, she was trapped. Soldiers were approaching her from both ends of the hallway, and she knew that if they caught her, she would never see the light of day again.

And so she opened the closest unlocked door she had just tried and entered the room, immediately using whatever she could move to barricade the door. Soon enough the sounds of bodies slamming against the door attempting to get it to open began, and Willow could do nothing but look around in a panic and begin hunting for anything to defend herself. The room seemed to be some sort of medical room, or science lab, and there was nothing inside to defend herself with.

There was, however, another door.

Taking the risk, Willow pulled on the door handle, only to notice that it required a keycard to open. There was a small window she could see out through, and noticed that it led outside, to a grimy little alleyway that may very well be a dead end, but she didn't exactly have any other options. Quickly running over to a table, she began looking for anything she could find to open the door, or perhaps even attempt to break the scanner. Finally, she settled on a long needle she found, and ran back to the scanner, her muscles tensing as the sound of the barricade being moved filled the room.

With shaking hands, she slipped the point of the needle between the scanner pieces and slowly drug it down until it sank into a small spot in the scanner. Upon finding this, she quickly closed her eyes and slammed her palm against the blunt end, forcing the needle farther into the scanner, effectively causing a series of sparks before it stopped working altogether and unlocked the door.

Glancing back one last time, Willow grabbed a set of folded black clothes to replace the bloodied and torn rags she had been wearing before running into the alleyway.

" _Willow! I can finally connect!_ "

"Yeah, I'm here P.R.I.S.M., let's make sure it stays that way, shall we?"

" _Of course, Willow. Finding the safest route for you to take now._ "


	7. 03

‘ _ I have to get the  _ **_hell_ ** _ out of here. Somewhere I’ll be safe in this shithole city… _ ’ Willow thought, the adrenaline beginning to wear off now that she had stopped for a moment to change into a more inconspicuous set of clothes.

Carefully pulling the oversized jacket over her sore shoulders, Willow released a pained sigh and bent over, resting her hands on her knees. The exhaustion was beginning to set in, but this was no time for her to pass out. Pushing herself to stand, Willow turned her head to in the direction she had entered the alley from, hearing the pounding of boots against the wet ground.

“ _ Willow, I recommend leaving this area  _ **_now_ ** _. _ ” P.R.I.S.M., the A.I Willow had created insisted.

Gritting her teeth, Willow began running through the dark alleyways of the city once again, both relaxing and tensing as she heard the sounds of people and cars. It could be a trap, or it could be her salvation. There was only one way to find out.

Propelling herself forward, she launched into the crowd of people moving in every direction, being met with grunts of displeasure and people yelling obscenities at her. There was no time to care about that, as she pushed through the crowd, moving as quickly as she could, trying to stay in the middle of the flow of people, away from the edges. It was harder than she had expected, and she apparently didn’t blend in quite as well as she had been hoping, as she was grabbed by someone from behind and tugged off to the side of the crowd.

The exhaustion, combined with the pain of beating she had taken, and the adrenaline that was wearing off at a rapid pace was wearing on her quickly, and she knew she only had enough time and energy to shadow jump once.

“ _ Willow, if we do not leave  _ **_now_ ** _ , I fear we will be captured once again…  _ **_Please, Willow._ ** ” P.R.I.S.M. pleaded with her tired creator, making the young woman grit her teeth and focus her remaining energy on  _ one _ thought. Willow thought of what was probably the  _ safest place _ in all of what she had realized was New York City.

The  **Avengers Tower** .

Her body melted out of the person’s grip, disappearing into the darkness of the city, and only seconds later she stumbled out of the shadows of a corner in some sort of workshop type room, knocking several tools off of a table as she attempted to catch herself before falling to the ground.

Tony, who had been working nearby on a new suit design, jerked into an upright position at the sudden uninvited disturbance. Standing up, one hand was already outfitted in an armored shell, palm out and blaster at the ready as he slowly made his way toward the motionless blonde haired mass on the floor. Once it was at his feet, Tony nudged it with his foot, quickly jerking back in case it suddenly sprang to life.

“Uh,  _ hello _ ? F.R.I.D.A.Y., can you get a scan on this person?” Tony ordered, watching it carefully as his A.I replied immediately.

“ _ Something is obstructing me from getting a clear scan. It almost seems to be another A.I _ .” F.R.I.D.A.Y. informed the man, whose brow furrowed in return as he continued staring down at the figure.

“ _ I prefer to be called by the acronym given to me by my creator; P.R.I.S.M. Now, if you would be so kind, please, help her. _ ” P.R.I.S.M. pleaded with the man she had already recognized as Anthony Stark.

Slowly Tony knelt down beside the figure and turned it over, surprised when he saw a young woman with cuts and bruises all over her face.

“F.R.I.D.A.Y. get Steve or Bucky down here to help move her to the medical wing.”

“ _ Already done, Mr. Stark. They should be here in just a moment. I believe you should have a look at the symbol on the jacket she is wearing, however. _ ” Tony’s A.I. informed him, allowing him to sigh a bit in relief before furrowing his brow, reaching over to turn her slightly to look at the symbol.

It was then that both of the super soldiers were jogging into Tony’s lab, Steve  stopping when they saw the bruised young woman passed out on Tony’s floor. Bucky stopped when he saw the HYDRA symbol on the jacket she was wearing, his entire body tensing.

“What the hell happened here, Stark?” Steve immediately questioned, kneeling down to get a closer look at the woman.

“How the hell am  _ I _ supposed to know? She’s the one that just  _ appeared _ in  _ my _ lab! But look at this. That’s a HYDRA symbol. So why the hell is she so beat up, and coming  _ here _ of all places?”

“ _ My scans indicate that she is still alive, breathing is normal, brain activity is normal. There is bruising around the torso, both legs and arms, as well as the face. Now, if one of you gentlemen would be so kind, my creator would greatly appreciate your assistance in getting her some form of medical help, I’m sure _ .” P.R.I.S.M. stated, her snarky attitude making Tony smirk as he stood up.

“Alright, P.R.I.S.M., but we’re gonna need a little bit of an explanation about what exactly is going on.” Tony said, wondering where this new A.I. was located, and why F.R.I.D.A.Y. couldn’t get a scan on it or the girl.

“ _ Of course, Mr. Stark, I will be sure to send you information I find relevant  _ **_after_ ** _ you have helped my creator. Not before. _ ” P.R.I.S.M. stated, making Tony chuckle.

“You drive a hard bargain. Steve, get her to the medical wing.”

Steve was hesitant to do anything as he glanced back at his best friend, only to realize that Bucky had left at some point. With a sigh, Steve gently lifted the woman up and carried her a to the medical area a few floor down in the tower. Once there, he simply laid her on a bed and left to allow the nurses and doctors to check her over, needing to go check in on Bucky.

Bucky was not as relaxed about this entire situation as Tony seemed to be, and was actually freaking out on the inside. What he saw as a HYDRA agent had just dropped into the tower somehow, and now they were going to help her  _ get better _ . Standing in the apartment Tony had designed for him on the same floor as Steve, he stared out of the floor to ceiling window at the lights of the city, trying to get his mind off of this new development when the sound of footsteps approaching his door alerted him to Steve’s presence.

Knowing that Steve wouldn’t enter the room without his permission, Bucky turned away from the window and made his way to the door, opening it just as the blonde man came to a stop.

“Hey, Buck, I just wanted to make sure you were doin’ okay.” Steve said, always worried about his friends well-being.

With a slight nod of his head, Bucky swallowed roughly before speaking. “Yeah, I’ll be alright. It just… Startled me, seeing someone in the tower wearing that damn symbol.”

“I know what you mean, Buck, I was surprised too. But when she wakes up, I can go and question her, get any information she may have about HYDRA, then figure out what to do with both her and the information.” Steve explained his plan, and Bucky furrowed his brow, tightening his jaw briefly before nodding.

Three days later Willow Harper jerked awake in yet another brightly lit room, causing her to squeeze her eyes shut before reopening them, blinking rapidly to adjust to the lights.

Glancing down at her body, she noticed she had been changed out of the clothes she had stolen from the base and was now wearing a thin white gown. Also taking notice of the needle in her arm, leading up to a clear IV bag, Willow clenched her jaw and was about to remove it when a voice interrupted her.

“Каковы были ваши приказы, солдат?” A deep, powerful man’s voice asked, confusing the young woman.

Looking over at the man, she saw he had brown hair falling down to his shoulders, as well as what seemed to be a metal left arm. It made her shiver and think about her own  _ enhancements _ . Raising an eyebrow as she pulled the needle out of her arm and threw it off to the side without taking her eyes off of him, she cleared her dry throat before speaking.

“They assign you to look after me until I woke up? I got out once, and you can bet your ass that whatever is in that IV won’t keep me from getting out of here again.” Willow’s voice was raw and broke a few times as she spoke, but she didn’t care, she simply maintained eye contact with the man who seemed to go from watching her with barely contained rage to a look of mild confusion.

“Каковы были ваши приказы, солдат? Я задал тебе вопрос.” The man spoke with a firm, unwavering tone, bringing up a black fabric in his hands, standing and reaching her bedside in two strides with his long legs.

Once in front of her, Bucky turned the jacket around and practically shoved the red patch of the image of HYDRA in the woman’s face, growing more frustrated.

“I don’t know what the fuck you’re saying, get this shit out of my face!” Willow said, raising her hands in an attempt to push the jacket he was holding away from her.

It was during this time that both Tony and Steve entered the room, Steve immediately running around to the side of the bed Bucky was on, putting a hand carefully on his shoulder and pulling him back.

“Relax, Buck, relax.”

“Are you an agent for HYDRA?” Tony asked immediately, staring down at the young woman in the bed, his brow furrowed.

Quickly turning her head to face the goateed man, she shook her head slightly.

“HYDRA? No, what the hell? Look, I don’t know what the fuck you people think is happening, or has happened, but you don’t know shit about what I went through just to get here. In fact, is  _ here _ where I think it is?” Willow spoke quickly and asked the question expecting an answer from only one person, of course receiving one, as well as an explanation, almost immediately.

“ _ Of course, Willow. Your last thoughts were about a safe place in New York City, the  _ **_safest_ ** _ place, to be exact. And so you were brought to the Avengers Tower. Mr. Stark was interrupted when we entered the tower directly into his lab, and Steven Rogers as well as James Barnes were called down in order to assist him in getting you proper medical attention for your injuries. _ ” P.R.I.S.M. began recalling everything that had happened and Willow nodded along, taking in the information of what had happened after she had passed out. “ _ I struck a deal with Mr. Stark in order to ensure your safety. I assumed you would be in agreement _ .”

“Of course, keeping your vessel alive is one of the items at the top of the list. You were correct in your actions, P.R.I.S.M., I’m not upset with you.” The wording of Willow’s response made the three men give her  _ stranger _ looks.

“ _ Now, if you will allow me to introduce us. My name is P.R.I.S.M., an acronym standing for Personal Real-time Intelligent Safety Management, and my creator is Willow Finley Harper, who you see before you. I am one of her proudest achievements, a  _ **_true_ ** _ artificial intelligence, although I lack the standard  _ **_tangible_ ** _ form that would allow me to interact more-so with your world, I do have an appearance, which I am fully capable of altering to my own satisfaction. The jacket that Sergeant Barnes holds in his hands has a patch with a symbol for an authoritarian terrorist-criminal-paramilitary organization bent on world domination known as HYDRA. Willow, however, is not a member of this organization. _

_ “Seventeen days ago I lost connection to my creator, which  _ **_should_ ** _ be impossible, however, it happened. I was lost in my search for her,  as she had seemingly dropped off the map. During this time, Willow was somehow kidnapped by HYDRA, and kept unconscious, or at the very least unaware, for most of this time. She only regained consciousness three days ago, the night she appeared in your lab, Mr. Stark. So, you see, my creator is a soldier as you hypothesised Mr. Barnes, but rather a victim, like yourself. _ ”

“So, how did she… You…” Steve paused for a moment to pinch the bridge of his nose and sigh before starting again , thinking about the stress Ultron, the last ‘ _ true _ A.I.,’ had brought them . “Miss Harper, how did you get  _ into _ the tower?”

“Well, it’s part of the reason I guess this HYDRA organization wanted me. I’m umbrakinetic, which is just the fancy way of saying that I can mentally generate and manipulate darkness. I can even travel through shadows, which is what I did when I ended up in Mr. Stark’s lab. Sorry about that, by the way. One thing that I do most often, and have actually been doing since I was a child was creating what I always call my  _ friends _ . They’re essentially living darkness, or at least they’re living for as long as I need them.”

The three men stood silently around her bed before a sharp pain in Willow’s head caused her to squeeze her eyes shut and clutch her forehead, letting out a pained sigh.

“ _ Willow, I believe Hydra unsuccessfully attempted to access the back panels and damaged a few of the internal systems, leading to our current malfunctions. _ ”

Nodding slightly, Willow looked up at Tony with a curious glance.

“You’re a genius, do you think I could use some of your tools to check up on my systems?” The question was certainly  _ odd _ , and no one was entirely sure of what the woman and her A.I. meant, but Tony nodded briefly, agreeing to show her down to his lab as long as they could talk about the science things that Steve and Bucky had no real interest in.

Once out of the bed and dressed in some dark grey sweats and a white t-shirt that had a Stark Industries logo on it, Willow made her way out of the room, stopping briefly in surprise as she came face to face with the man that had been speaking to her in a different language when she first woke up.  _ James Barnes _ , as she recalled P.R.I.S.M. referring to him.

“Mr. Barnes, I’m surprised to see you still hanging out around here. I thought you would want to be as far away from me as possible, honestly.”

“I wanted to… Apologize. For my behaviour earlier.” If the man could look any more uncomfortable, she was certain he would.

“Oh, well, no need to apologize, Mr. Barnes. I understand being cautious about things, especially when it involves some terrorist organization.”

“...It’s Bucky.” He said quietly, looking down at his shoes.

“Bucky?”

“My middle name is Buchanan… Everyone calls me Bucky.” Bucky explained to her, making her pause in her thoughts of the awkwardness of the situation and smile. 

“Alright. Bucky. I like it. I know my A.I. introduced me earlier, but my name is Willow, and it’s nice to meet you, Bucky.” The young woman smiled warmly at the super soldier, and as he looked down at her and saw the pure expression on her face, he was pretty sure his heart stopped beating for a moment.

“ _ Miss Harper, Mr. Stark is waiting in his lab whenever you’re ready. _ ” F.R.I.D.A.Y. announced, her Irish lilt making Willow smile slightly.

“Alright, thank you F.R.I.D.A.Y., please tell Mr. Stark that I’m on my way. I’ll talk to you later, Bucky. Assuming I’m still around here, that is.” Her tone was joking, but the words were true. The only people living in the tower were the Avengers, which she was not.


End file.
